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A Lurker's History of Paradox and the Paradox Community *
by Stacy Rowley


The Early Windows Days: the Software

Understanding the context is very important in viewing what happened here, and the difficulties can not be underestimated.
  • Windows had been born, but was still a struggling infant and about to be infused with version 3.1, the first version to gain much use. Borland developers, like all developers, were coming up the learning curve and coping with OS problems on top of their own programming problems. Paradox developers and users were about to be wrenched from DOS. (Some took years to leave DOS, and Steve Green's Diamond Software Group, Inc. supports the DOS versions in 2001 after Corel turned over that responsibility to them.) Windows was a different way of thinking.


  • In 1991, Borland acquired Ashton-Tate, the rival company who owned dBASE. Was increased business or ego the motivation? dBase needed to go through its evolution to Windows, too. Without doubt, this acquisition divided management attention at Borland, and technical resources could well have been diluted also. This acquisition also obtained the basis for what became Interbase.


  • Furthermore, Lotus brought suit against Borland in 1990 claiming that Borland's Quattro Pro violated copyright ownership to the Lotus 1-2-3 menu command system. It took until 1995 before the courts ruled that the menu command system was the method of operating the program and therefore not copyrightable. This also diverted Borland management resources. (Interestingly, when the suit was filed, IBM filed a Friends of the Court brief that said, in essence, "If we owned Lotus, we'd drop the suit immediately.", but IBM seemed to forget that statement when later they acquired Lotus.)


  • Borland hiccuped on Paradox for Windows, returning mid-stream to the drawing board for some revisions.


  • Microsoft wanted to have application software as well as the Windows operating system, and was aware that database software was one important arena in which several companies were working. Microsoft turned to dusting off an earlier database effort that had been shelved, a product called Cirrus that they had decided was too poor to proceed with, and they were racing "to get there first." They did so, releasing Access in November 1992.


  • Database software in the early DOS days was priced at $795. It had come down some and there were competitive upgrades. Microsoft wanted to generate sales of Windows and of Access. Suddenly we had $99 or$139 (PW) software. The software business has difficulty keeping profitable as later generations add features, to get sales, which inflict development and support costs which they hope will be more than offset by new sales and upgrade purchases. Starting with a low initial price may attract volume but fails to give much pricing room for upgrades for a continuing revenue stream.


  • Borland's Paradox for Windows 1.0 entered the marketplace in January 1993, after Access had a head start in gaining market share.
Interesting times indeed.

To migrate Paradox for DOS (hereafter denoted PDOS) applications to Paradox for Windows (hereafter shortened to PW), the tables were forward compatible but everything else had to be redone. Oh, QBE still used the same logic. But to migrate applications and build new ones, the developer had to learn Windows while coming to grips with PW and its quite different approach. Even interactive Paradox had some learning, simply because of Windows and also because of PW. Folks had learned to develop PDOS 3.5 forms, then PDOS 4 dialog windows and forms, and now PW forms--all very different from the prior generation. One also had to learn how to develop PW reports. After all this, there was the event model. PDOS PAL was the language; PW ObjectPAL or OPAL, completely different from PAL, was the new and more extensive programming language. PDOS experts became PW neophytes; everyone was a PW neophyte.


Next:
The Early Windows Days: the People (the Community)


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